[Exclusive] First Android Gingerbread Details

We’ve heard countless reports that it’s out there. We know it’s still in development and we know some Googlers have it loaded onto their Nexus Ones. I’m talking about the Android Gingerbread update, of course, and we can finally bring you the first details regarding the next iteration courtesy of our trusted source close to Google. The biggest change – outside of built-in video chat support (more on that later) – that many have been wondering about has been a possible graphical overhaul. The acquisition of ex-Palm user interface expert Matias Duarte – the guy that designed the still-pretty webOS – implied that Google would be looking to pretty Android up against criticism that it was noticably “uglier” than the competition (they may have an argument up against iOS, but I don’t think Symbian, Windows Mobile (6.5) and Blackberry OS are any prettier. No offense to those respective design teams.)

Regardless of what we think, though, Google’s set out to change the face of Android and they’ve started quite subtly. To start, most of the standard icons have gotten redesigned for a simpler and cleaner look. The Android debugging icon, for instance, now takes on a more 8-bit feel and doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb as it used to. Google’s really gone back to the easel in this area, apparently. It sounds miniscule when you think about it now, but you’ll really notice it after using Gingerbread for a while and notice that everything’s just easier on your eyes. The icons also look like they were all designed by the same person, and I’m betting they were. This not only makes for a cleaner looking Android, but makes for a more uniform Android.

The snapshot of this thing in the wild is as blurry as blurry can get, but we’re working on getting more. At first glance, the graphical changes will be especially noticeable on the notification bar. They’ve gone from the milky/egg-white look of the Android of current to a warm, slate grey (reminiscent of the taskbar on devices with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.) Everything looks pretty familiar upon pulling the notification bar down, but the carrier branding is displayed a lot more prominently compared to before. Beyond that, it’s pretty apparent that Google’s embracing “green” as the color of choice for Android, just as we’d expect they’d want to. (The mascot and logo are green, why not bits of the OS?) As they bring more green in, they haven’t completely done away with the orange we’re all used to. Depending on what’s being displayed, you’ll still see that warm color roaming about.

Looking at the homescreen, things are fundamentally the same. (We expect that, of course. Widgets have become a huge part of the Android experience and it’d be foolish to do anything to compromise that angle.) Looking at it, though, we’re greeted with more of the green highlights at the bottom of the screen. The application drawer button remains the same, but the Browser and Dialer buttons go from a quiet gray to a standout lime. There isn’t much else to talk about here, but anything could be added between now and the time Google’s ready to build the final version of this gingery house.

From what we’ve heard from our source, one of Google’s goals this time around is to work on the look and feel of individual Google apps to make them seem like more of an extension of the OS than just a tacked on accessory. The YouTube app is among the few to get this treatment. They’ve reportedly reshuffled elements and sections throughout the app and made sure it was as visually appealing as the rest of the apps featured in the newest version. YouTube (which will finally get stepped up to version 2.x) will also add the ability to control the fairly new “Lean Back” version of their site that launches the video-driven social network in a full-screen continous play mode. An ideal use-case sees the user controlling Lean Back on the newly-launched Google TV right from their phone. We’re trying to get more screens and details on how this will work, but we’ll just have to use our imagination for now.

Graphical changes continue where Google’s added the “bouncy” effect that you see on iOS devices and on TouchWiz 3.0 devices when traversing lists. When you reach the top or bottom of a list via kinetic scrolling, it’ll bounce off of the edge and initiate an orange glow at that edge. The best way to visualize the effect is to picture a force field in a Sci-Fi movie absorbing shock and emitting a nice glow that translates to “nuh-uh, you can’t touch this.” It sounds like a lot of this wouldn’t do well to help overall system performance, but we hear that – despite all of the eye candy – things actually feel smoother than on Froyo and earlier. It’s long been rumored that Google would be implementing hardware acceleration (what makes iOS smoother despite similarities in hardware against high-end Androids) in future versions of Android, and while we can’t confirm that at this point, it sounds like that just might be the case with Gingerbread. Other subtle visual changes include a style change in radio buttons and checkmarks. They’re bigger, cleaner, greener, and more beautiful. Nothing to get excited over, but even the smallest pieces contribute to a beautifully-finished puzzle. For what it’s worth, we’re told Gingerbread will eventually end up with a user interface that’s more like Sense than anything. (We believe they mean by how much will be different compared to what we now know and love as the stock Android experience.)

It’s not all about the visuals, though, because Google’s working to add even more functionality at the core of Android. Perhaps the biggest addition (that we can confirm so far) has been support for video chat using the same protocols that powers video chat on the desktop version of Google Talk. We’ve heard this rumor before, but our source is confident that this will be up and running by the time Gingerbread hits the net. Building upon that, we’ve also learned that Google’s adding SIP support in their Google Voice application to allow you to receive calls to your Google Voice number over WiFi and cellular data. For those who use Android devices without a voice plan, this means you can still use your phone as a phone as long as you’re near a WiFi connection. Nothing groundbreaking considering there are many VoIP options in the market currently, but it’s notable that Google’s adding this support natively. We’ve heard that the actual updated Voice application might not be ready for Gingerbread’s release, but the underlying framework has already been checked in. Unfortunately, it sounds like this’ll be a Gingerbread-exclusive feature so you Google Voice fans on Froyo and earlier (everyone, as of now) shouldn’t get too excited just yet.

So the ingredients are still being thrown into the bowl, but it hasn’t all been baked up yet. Still, it sounds like Gingerbread is coming along nicely and is everything it was rumored to be, and more. We’re digging for more information and evidence – including video of some sort – so stayed tuned to Phandroid as we head a bit deeper into development. (An announcement and release for Gingerbread was originally scheduled for Q4 2010, but might not rear its head until Q1 2011. The verdict is still out on all of that.)

PS: Remember that these are just early details of what we can confirm will be a part of Gingerbread. There may very well be more, but for now we can’t confirm that (and as it stands, all of it is rumored until otherwise officially announced.) With that in mind, sound off below!

Featured

Call me crazy but from what I can see from that image, I don’t see a “complete UI overhaul” that was rumored?

tarusdg

cant wait to see how it stacks up to iOS ans WP7. hopefully it will exceed or at least be on par.

http://twitter.com/willsours Will Sours

Love the Google Voice features, video chat, and hardware acceleration (the former two seem like they could just be apps though, as they should be, ala Gmail). However the graphical enhancements leave me underwhelmed. I didn’t want the familiar desktop to go away, but for all this time and talk about the graphical priority this time around, I was expecting much more than some green sprinkled in and bigger buttons.

Crystal

I still don’t have Froyo :(

tarusdg

@Ryan. i dont either, but it may be that the pic is too blurry to see whats really going on.

Lior

I heard the Gingerbread SDK will be released by the end of the week so if it’s true, we can use the emulator to see the new UI.. if any :)

droidment

Second!!

Argenys

If you guys were to read the whole article you would have read that the final product will be as far from the design of android now as sense is.

wolverineguy55

@Ryan & @tarusdg – I don’t think one screen will show you a UI change other than color and icon changes. We really need to see a video to see real UI changes.

Wireless Fool

Does anyone else find it amusing that anything that ever gets released always comes out in the blurriest photo imaginable…I mean seriously, who can’t take a better snap shot than that!?

Hetal patel

Disappointing

Covert

i like the way Lior thinks ;)

Joe Fernandez

Froyo sucks! get it together people.

max

I really don’t see much of a difference in appearance but hardware stability and acceleration was really the only problem android has ever had and the fact google listened to fix the problem is pretty important and shows that android will soon not be known as the buggy OS but the stable, fast and pretty one. Still am freaking out about a task manager. I personally don’t use market task killers because they kill your battery, but with the ex palm developer i hope they implement that same multitasking that palm has!!!

http://mike? Mike

Green? As in the hilight colour that devs work so hard to take out of ROMs because it’s so hideous.

Lame.

Sam I Am

Gingerbread’s UI is the least important feature I’m interested in. Would like to know more about what apps & features will be exclusive to Gingerbread. Article mentioned video chat & google voice calling. That’s a good start. Would love to hear about more packaged goodies. Just getting used to Froyo on my G2 and loving it.

elijahblake

Android be up to par with win phone 7 and ios haha.. IMO it’s already above both of those.. Animated wallpapers, Widgets, just make all the menus cleaner and uniform and what else do you really need to change?

Teece

Also a bit underwhelmed with this first look, however
I hope that this is just a taster of better things to come in Gingerbread, otherwise I may give WP7 a run out and see what Microsoft’s enhancements feel like.

I don’t know but I always expect Google to try and blow us away with new features and enhancements to the UI.

tarusdg

@elijahblake i agree with you that the OS itself is on par with others. With all the things you can do with the OS that other OSs cant event come close to matching. What i’m talking about is fit and finish and polish of the OS. make sure it runs smothly and is optimized for the Hardware. I am currently using a NexusOne and a Samsung Vibrant so i am no android hater. I just think that google should spend a much time with the look of the OS as they do with the functionality of it. Android is like a Swiss Army knife: It might not look as good as other tools but it gets the job done.

AlexNC

I would be VERY surprised if 3.0 only brought these few changes mentioned in the above article. I am expecting the Music, Videos, and Picture apps to be totally overhauled. I am expecting a native app for streaming media from my home server to my phone. I am expecting to get true integration with Google Docs, with full edit/save functions.I am expecting native Bookmark syncing between the desktop Chrome to Android browsers. And I am also expecting some sort of Game and Music service to be announced.

Bigbadbikernerd

Nothing about tablet support yet…darn. I was hoping to finally see an iPad competitor. Until tablets are supported, and the Marketplace allowed on them (WiFi only), the iPad will dominate the tablet category…

prash

“The icons also look like they were all designed by the same person, and I’m betting they were. This not only makes for a cleaner looking Android, but makes for a more uniform Android.”

No shit sherlock, all the old icons were made by ‘the same person’ too. This is the most ridiculous story I’ve seen. That’s not gingerbread, its just a blurry photo of a phone running black status bar mod. You’re telling me a tech site doesn’t have better resolution camera with auto-focus..on an android tech blog site? Really?

I hate rumor mongering.

http://goo.gl/xP7j Rajesh

This is all, that has been published on this post. Go check out and enjoy http://goo.gl/xP7j

DonnyDee

Doesnt sound as impressive as the COMPLETE REDESIGN of the UI (Basically the same but i heard it was uppossed to be BETTER LOOKING) Disapointment…..another update that only the Nxus One will get the others will get it in 2012 Im sure!!

I have the fascinate and still dont have 2.2

Bob

Still no word on what they plan to do with their BumpTop acquisition?

Pachi

The most important feature they need to fix is a good multitasking program. Those task managers ain’t cutting it.

someone

I don’t see a shit on those images, pfff.

hector

Seems Matias Duarte has been on vacation since he landed at Google… Truly disappointing. But in the end, it will be true that Gingerbread is Android 2.5… That doesn’t deserve a new major version number.

Spiel

Like what I see so far, but please Google, please work on the bloody keyboard in Gingerbread; make it more accurate and have an independent volume control for the audible click. So irritating that the volume is attached to the Media volume.

Greenskye

the main thing I want is an ipod-worthy music/video app for android. One that preferably supports many formats. It’s the only thing still keeping me tied to apple.

abdulla

Please tell me Arabic is going to be supported natively on Gingerbread! Thanks for the updates phandroid!

EmEffer

Excited to get this on my G2 :) but i will shit bricks if TMO fucks around and i dont get the update until 6 months later than everyone else lol

AMG ETR

Did anyone else visit website posted? At the end of article it stated that it would hGB would have a flagship device like the Nexus. Does this mean it wont be released on Nexus before other devices, instead Motorola?

jdog

I expect and event to announce Gingerbread and at the end who ever is on stage says “oh and one more thing”, then bam he pulls out a Nexus Two.

Joooooosh

all I see is “gunna make it prettier and add video calling.” Snore. C’mon son. This is not how you build hype. How about better battery life, use of multi threading, more robust copy and paste, better software for the cameras, better video, better streaming options, etc….

no

I hope they do something with the music player. I REALLY DON’T LIKE IT.

Mitch

First

Keith

Umm… How the heck can this even be presumed to be Gingerbread? It’s a blurred as heck photo. Just looks like a custom ROM or something. Camera phones have way better resolution than this, I’m calling shenanigans!!!

ToastnJam

Not sure why they even bothered to post that first photo since you couldn’t see any improvements regarding anything that was spoken about. I also don’t like the fact that they’re trying to make Gingerbread more like iOS. That’s a real turn-off for me! I want and bought an Android phone. I don’t want a wanna-be Iphone, I want my phone to look, smell and taste all android all the time. If I wanted an Iphone I would have bought an Iphone. I also don’t see it releasing this year, being that there are still so many make/model phones that have yet to get their Froyo update.
Personally, nothing noted in this post really appealed to me but we’ll see how that goes as more information is released.

Eric

@AlexNC: Thats what I want! I would also like an equalizer for the music player.

These icon, taskbar tweaks sound more like 2.2.1.1

TareX

This is a whole lot less than I had thought. I thought it would be a more drastic change, and not just a bigger lime phone and internet icon.

LauncherPro already pwns this, hard.

Darren

How about adding features to the e-mail app or contacts app so it’s up to the basic feature set Palm had over a decade ago? Nah, let’s just make it pretty and add more Internet gizmos.

Tyler

ToastnJam, the fact that so many phones have not gotten Froyo has nothing to do with when Google will release Gingerbread. Froyo has been out since like May, its the fault of the carriers and hardware manufacturers for not getting it to the phones. If they could just give us vanilla android we wouldn’t have this problem

CaptainTaco

I am going to need to see more proof before I even consider believing they have implemented UI GPU hardware acceleration. Based on the AOSP issue reporting pages and feedback I have yet to see an associate of Google take any interest in our repeated concerns regarding a lack of hardware acceleration. In several cases the developers for Android have passed our requests off as “something we’ve investigated”… “and that we revisit
regularly” though “we thought of using the GPU, but there are non-trivial issues on
many Android devices”

“The “choppiness” and “lagginess” you are mentioning are more often related to heavy
garbage collection than drawing performance.”

How about a native spell checker built into email and texting like blackberry has ??!! this is much needed, and i can’t believe they overlooked this !!! this is a smart phone, right??

nossense

Nosense…

A blurry Froyo with a black task bar???

Pure trash

Eddie Android

In this case ill get the G2 (or keep my N1) instead of the Mytouch HD to see how Gingerbread turns out.

Brad

This is all fine and great, but I won’t be getting excited about Gingerbread for a while. Right now I’m just waiting for my Fascinate to get some tasty Froyo treatment. Once that comes out, THEN I will start to worry about whether or not it will be treated to Gingerbread next year. Heck, even if it doesn’t originally, I’m sure there will be people cooking up some ROMs for it, which I will have no problem moving to if Samsung decides to not support it. I thoroughly enjoyed having a custom ROM on my Eris, but did not enjoy the lack of hardware performance that no amount of software optimization can make up for. My Fascinate, on the other hand, has PLENTY of power for me, so I will probably be hanging onto it for quite a while.

caleb

thirdy-ninth!

john

is it just me or are the notification icons green. because if they are and its not just some effect that occured due to the blurriness of the pic, THEN I DONT LIKE IT.

Droid_Dizzy

What about Google’s acquirement of Bump Top is there a possibilty that it will be used on gingerbread as apart of the major appearance & UI changes in adroid. Can you ask your source that qestion?

scooter

Still waiting for gingerbread in Ohio. 10/18.
Come on Verizon! ;)>

simon

If I can’t reduce the size of the buttons, menu entries and fonts overall…I don’t see what 3.0 can offer me.

Infojock

It looks like it is time to get my hands on a Nexus One…

Pitrick

I’m so happy I have a N1 and won’t be waiting forever for this release!

For this I will keep the N1 until Google stops supporting it!

bob

How much do you wanna bet that the picture is some form of CyanogenMod? ;)

Roland Stone

All I care about is updated/improved audio. I want hi-fi audio recording! I want to be able to record streaming audio. Android audio is way behind other platforms.

Alessandro

What about Google’s acquirement of Bump Top is there a possibilty that it will be used on gingerbread as apart of the major appearance & UI changes in adroid. Can you ask your source that question? I would love to know. i have bumptop on my laptop and would love it on my phone. It will probably be part of honeycomb because I can see this more on a tablet than a phone!

Drizzle

I wonder if Blind Type will be included…didnt they purchase them too?

http://ARMdevices.net Charbax

SIP based Google Voice is important. It means $100 Android phones that are WiFi-only can seamlessly be used for free voice calls, natively using Google Voice. This is very disruptive, Voice is the major source of revenues and profits of the smart phone industry.

Karl

Tbh, *data* is the major source of revenues and profits of the smart phone industry that sets it apart – Voice is the major source of revenues and profits for the *entire* cellular phone industry :)

http://www.big-boxing.hu Laser60

C,mon O2 I want my piece of gingerB

Al

This article reeks of fail. Doesn’t tell us or show us anything. Omg green highlight, it must be Gingerbread!! Any themer could make the icons and highlight green.

http://www.big-boxing.hu Laser60

I dont care gingerbread or gingerbeer. Just give me, cant wait

jerry

This pretty confirms that Gingerbread is just a comsetic update and that HoneyComb will be the Tablet Version of the OS

RudioX

very nice quality pic…seriously, this is a joke, show us a real picture!

Dade

Are there multiple hardware versions of the Nexus one, because if not, then the phone above is not a Nexus one. It’s lacking the trackball and the whole area under the 4 home buttons. Not sure what phone that is.

t_e_e_k

if they really want to make it better: pls google install your own jabber gateway and let us connect to other networks like icq, aim, facebook, skype … directly with your chat application, so that only one phone book is needed, not many!
this would be soo easy for you :(

dork

give android a better music player.

Mightytallandroid

Blurry pic, but can still make out the Nexus One that it’s running on.

Jevyjav

@dade and mighty there is only one hardware version of the nexus one and yes that is a nexus one pictured above. You can tell because of the color scheme and the fact that the back button is placed so far to the left. The persons thumb is actually covering the track ball. And yes I do own a nexus… I happen to be one of the fortunate few. Gingerbread here I come

Jevyjav

Oh yeah for everyone else who is complaining about this os which you haven’t even laid hands on yet or even seen outside of one blurry picture- quit bitching! The beauty of the android platform rest in the fact that as users we are able to change almost every part of the os that you don’t like. You don’t like the stock music player download an aftermarket one. Currently my nexus one is completely customized. Swype keyboard handcent sms cyanogen music player. Launcher pro, blue notify etc. you can turn android into whatever you want which leads me to believe the people bitching obviously don’t have droids or don’t know how to use them

TheDrizzle

Honestly, I’m going to wait for a non blurry, official statement before I start to judge the “UI overhaul.” I would take this with a grain of salt.

John

This is sad when websites make this stuff up! Really must be your only way to generate hits for your site? Seriously, the person in the pic has advance task killer redundant in 2.0 btw, if 2.5/3.0 needs a task killer it’s a downgrade. I can edit build.prop’s too if you want, we can start a Android 5.0 rumor if you like this made up bullshit. The pic looks like it’s taken with a 10yr old camera phone. The status bar is black thats the only thing that you can really make out of the pic. I just don’t understand, how do you know this is Gingerbread? No facts at all, Phandroid stop this bs. This post is an opinion, not news and no where near it! Oh you can think I’m a troll or whatever you want, this “news” is the real troll. Also the way android has been making everything a market update goes against your so called tips. Blah blah the adb icon is new you say? How the hell is there no led on the top right? It would be green or amber if if usb is conected. The so called icon for adb is advance task like I said. The guy who wrote this must of never used a theme of even cm6 has a black bar option. Fairy tales my friends, I’m gonna call this site Fairydroid from now on…

Lucian Armasu

Is that the UI overhaul? The best Matias could do? Some redesigned icons?? Android needs some UI enhancements that are not just about polish, but about usability, too.

Start with getting rid of at least 3 out of those 4 unnecessary buttons. All could be implemented in the interface, and it always seems like disconnect between using the screen and using the buttons.

Sometimes, I don’t even know what to do in an app and keep pressing stuff on the screen, and after a while I remember the menu button.

Just get rid of the buttons. They are not needed and the user experience would improve if they were gone. Just give me the screen and an on/off button on the side. Anything else can be put inside the interface.

http://confrontingconformity.com William Laws

we might be able to see how much better it is if that dumb phandroid watermark was gone….

MW

Everything looks good, and I am excited about the future of Android…however dump question…how do you get hardware acceleration via a software upgrade?

Fred

Man it annoys me when people get excited over crappy little gimmicks like video calling. This technology has been available on other operating systems for 3 years now.
Symbian are talking QT based platforms and Android fanboys are creaming their pants over shitty UI improvements.

“Wow look at me, I can watch Google TV”

Gingerbread?? More like “Candy Coated Crap”

terrence.

cool. all they really need to add is the ability to brighten/darken photos. i like that you can crop and rotate, but to be able to brighten photos natively (maybe even contrast too) would be great

Boris

first!

Useless Pic

Are there special 0.1 megapixel cameras for people to capture “leaks”? Are rumors going to be any less credible if captured with a regular camera that can take a decent pic? Stinks of controlled leaks..

Joao

My two cents based on the rumors, and Matias Duarte work with webOS. I suggest people to watch some WebOS videos in youtube.
I’m sure Google will revamp the UI to be on par but probably better than iPhone offering (they’ll try at least). That’s the main reason why they hired Matias Duarte. And from the look of what Matias did with WebOS we can’t expect anything less than that at least.

The UI will be hardware accelerated. Functionality will probably don’t change much, but there will be a lot more eye candy. Think of 3D like transitions from app to app. The biggest changes will probably be in Google’s own apps. But not only Google apps. Google apps will show the graphical features of Android 3.0. And those features such as transiction effects and so on will be available to developers. The objective is making future Android applications look way more gorgeous and able to compete with what Microsoft can do with Silverlight on Windows Phone 7. New developer tools will probably make it easier to use this graphical features.
But theres more. I bet Google plans cross platform Google Talk Video chat. I mean, they’ll probably release a Google Talk with video support iPhone application to kill Apple Facetime offering.
Google music online store will for sure integrate nicely with their music application. I bet they’ll revamp their media application to simply look gorgeous.
And gaming. All of this things are tied. Google will for sure push Android into the mobile gaming arena with better tools, samples, and overall make it easier to develop 3D games for Android.
This is in my opinion and the focus of Android 3.0 and future updates.
I’m willing to bet that this is what their aiming for and nothing less.
I’ll eat my hat if I’m mistaken in any of the above. :P

firstnamelastname

I’m sure gingerbread will be packed full of new features, hopefully

hector

@MW

every *new generation* GPU is able to do it… (Nexus, Galaxy S, and the likes)

G1, myTouch, and the likes are out of luck

Jay

@MW

“how do you get hardware acceleration via a software upgrade?”

The OS doesn’t currently offer a hardware accelerated UI despite many phones having GPUs capable enough to do so. This sofware update, if it does enable GPU acceleration, would do so only on phones with that capability. So yes, it can be done.

Phones that can do it? Any Galaxy S phones can (PowerVR SGX540). Motorola Droid/Droid2/Droid X can (SGX 530). Phones using the 2nd generation Snapdragon can, such as the T-Mobile G2 and the upcoming HTC Merge on Verizon (Adreno 205). Apaprently, even the relatively low-end Adreno 200 on the original Snapdragon (Nexus One, Desire, Incredible, Evo 4G, etc.) can as well, if this is truly Gingerbread above, and Gingerbread is using GPU acceleration for the UI.

Oh snap! My EVO has superpowers!

My Sense UI is second to none, but it probably wouldn’t mind a little gingerbread.

jeff

@Eddie Android, no G2 will get Gingerbread without overclocking. Gingerbread system requirements include a 1ghz processor, a g2 has 800 MHz

http://developtolearn.blogspot.com Antonio Vázquez Blanco

@jeff It isn’t confirmed that requeriment. Android developers also said no to that false info. No need of 1ghz! Anything about versions fragmentations?

hammondc

What about the vodafone nexus one owners? I’m still waiting on 2.2.1

http://androlicious.com Mark

Cool, can’t wait. Maybe with Gingerbread will see also a new Nexus !

KTP

I’m on Froyo with HTC Sense, and sh*t..it’s close to perfection as is. Hope 3.0 doesn’t mess anything up.

Kevin

While the article was great, the accompanying photo shouldn’t have even be used for this piece. To try and flesh out elements from it is embarassingly unscientific. Why not grab the nearest palm-reader, you’ll have about as much luck.

http://androidanswer.com Android Forums

Great features are being added, can’t wait to get hands on. If they do a little bit work on getting hold of fragmentation would be great. there are lots of complaints about a generic android app won’t work on some handsets.

Walter

But on what devices will 3.0 be available? The biggest issue with Andriod is that phone makers don’t port it to their prior models because they want to sell you the latest phones. Apple does a pretty fair job of making iOS work across their entire lineup with the exception of iOS 4 what wasn’t supported on iPhone 1st generation and iPod Touch 1st generation. That means for many that they won’t get Android 3.0 until their contract lets them upgrade their phone.

bill

Sure Android 3.0 will rock! But, no way this time. I’ll not buy any phone until some company shows a real interest in updating all their phones to the lastest android version they can run. Froyo (2.2) for the HTC G2 (Magic), etc. Then, and only then, I’ll choose the company who did the update on their old phones, to buy a smartphone for 3.0. It’s not 10 bucks, so manufacturers should understand that customers look at this.
It’s like a test.

I’m really upset about the way phones are NOT updated. Manufacturer should secure agreements with carrier & google to update asap (and do their job too).

Frank

You know what I want more than anything on Android 3.0? Built-in notepad, calendar, to-do, and contact apps that are half as functional as the ones on Palm devices, circa 1997. Looking at some of the nicer iPhone apps wouldn’t hurt, either. Android’s built-in apps (the ones where people get things done, not just playing media) all feel like they were written by people who had never used any other PDA in their life. I love my Droid, but sheesh, I’m tired of feeling like the “non-sexy” apps are a 15 year step backwards.

doug

it looks like they’ve not perfected the selective focus aspect of the new camera software. still beta but it sounds like gingerbread is getting baked.

doug

bill, would you like a Samsung Behold II? I didn’t think so. Way to go and I hope more people do the same.

Ricky

I don’t need ui updates. I just have a few small requests:

1. System-wide cut and paste (my g1 might’ve had it first but IOS’ implementation puts my froyo-running n1 to shame)

i’LL WAIT till next year to get A GINGERBREAD ANDROID DEVICE. it will come out good by then. instead of buying these lame 2.1 or 2.2 Android.

listmaker

I want 3 things:

1. “UMA” support (GSM over Wifi)

2. Enable the FM transceiver on the Nexus One

3. Enable the ANT transceiver on the HTC Legend

Shea

I am personally excited to see Gingerbread working on a tablet. I have a netbook and a Droid X. Both would be used very little if I could get my hands on a 7″ android tablet that looked and worked as good as the ipad if not better.

The only things keeping me from an ipad are the price and the fact that I have a netbook. Otherwise, I am sold on this market segment. Portable connected devices are the wave of the future. Soon nobody will have smartphones or netbooks, just portable internet devices wether it bet a screen in your pocket that’s 4″ or 7″ or 10″

locke

Well, it does seem a bit of a poor leak, but I guess it’s doing the job as it’s getting people talking. However I do expect the UI overhaul to be as much as what Sense UI has done for HTC phones, as if not then any themer out there can add a few new icons and highlights.

Someone

“Building upon that, we’ve also learned that Google’s adding SIP support in their Google Voice application to allow you to receive calls to your Google Voice number over WiFi and cellular data. For those who use Android devices without a voice plan, this means you can still use your phone as a phone as long as you’re near a WiFi connection.”

… this isn’t FT. Under your own admission in the first sentence, you can be on WiFi *OR* cellular… fix your “near a wifi connection”!

daniel

Isnt that ADWhome?

Trink

First!!! Oh wait…

james

im not sure if google is properly thinking things through but i own a nexus one and you want to know something amazing it doesnt have a front facing camera. so why the hell is google applying google video chat if googles flagship phone doesnt have a god dam front facing camera…am i supposed to turn the phone over for them to see me then turn it back thats freakin rediculous. common google like seriously -_-

Jon

What about encryption? I need device and external storage encryption.

Wha…?

Wow, was that picture taken with a Polaroid camera, shredded, glued back together with paste and silly putty, then scanned 500 times, each scan a scan of the previous scan? That’s how choppy that picture is.

And FYI, I think they just blur them up for the sake of pretend.

IndivisibleP

I must say, although the idea of a Gingerbread release is compelling and I have faith in the nature of Googles inovation, the details in this article were, for the most part, disappointing.

More green is not exactly my idea of an OS update, neither is a mere collection of minor cometic adjustments. Now I am aware that these details are not all that there which is going for Gingerbread, but since this is what has been leaked, this is what I am commenting on. Furthermore the only real cosmetic adjustment I would find significant and like to see is the capability of native icon size adjustment. The option for bigger icons is not much to ask and i think it would reduce some of the tackiness which comes from screens full of cluttered small icons. Other than that, why do much to change the stock cosmetics when most users are happy to customize all these appearances to their own liking anyway? I personally find simplicity to be the best foot to put forward by an OS, the rest is the prerogative of the user.

These are what I would find valuable and worthwhile improvements in the OS. A native and universally accessible easy-to-use task killer, better / more versatile native multitasking, native battery percentage in the notification bar, better music player, a decent you-tube app (w/ commenting, etc). Anyway these are some basic things that would go far to improve this OS.

Bootlejr88

Root! You can make it what you want. Droid Eris Rooted, running cyanogen mod froyo 2.2.1 Blackened Tazz. Loving it!!! Just a thought. ;-)

androidphandroid

we want gingerbread by christmas! it’s a perfect name, maybe the next year near christmas release is named bells or something lol bells

Brad

root root root for the home team!

Mike

- high fidelity voice calls would be killer. I’m tired of crappy connections

– Ability to adjust font sizes in contacts and email

– Better UI navigation so not so much buried functionality

– combine Gmail with Email app. Doesn’t make sense to have separate

http://www.MobilePhoneBillOfRights.com Tim

Would love to see them finally fix the calendar application to tag events with time zones. Huge problem.